"All causes are so refined in character, so subtle in their nature,
that they can operate from center to circumference, operate upon man's interiors and from
the interior to the very exterior." [Kent, 1900, p.43]

Dr C. M. Boger

The concept of disease in homeopathy would
seem to be quite different from that used in allopathic medicine. The illness is not to be
defined, named, or explained or its cause to be sought, but it is just to be described in
ordinary language i.e. the symptoms. The symptoms are regarded as the ‘language of
nature', perhaps an expression of an invisible disease cause or agent [see C M Boger, The
Language of Disease, in his Studies in the Philosophy of Healing].

‘The disease is not to be named but perceived; not to be classified
but to be viewed, that the very nature of it may be discovered.’ [Kent, 1926, New
Remedies]

The symptoms appear to represent the
body's best attempt to rid itself of the underlying, invisible disorder and indicate a
line of attack which should be copied and boosted by the remedy. Thus the homeopath
follows nature's cue by using a drug that imitates the body's thus-far unsuccessful
efforts, but with greater vigour. Homeopaths thus have a similar view of disease to
Naturopaths, Reflexologists, etc., who view the symptoms of illness in a similar way: a
reaction of the body to an unseen morbific stimulus. A force working a long the right
lines, perhaps, but too weak and thus requiring extra affort.

"What we perceive actually in disease is the reaction of the body
in order to save itself...Any symptom which you see is a reaction of the defence mechanism
in order to bring about a balance." [Vithoulkas, 1985a, pp.47-8]

By contrast, allopaths, seem to view the
symptoms as all that is the matter and the sum total of what needs to be removed, for the
illness to have been dealt with successfully. Diagnosis is not the same as in allopathy.
The naming and classification of diseases is condemned:

"Diagnosis...is an outgrowth of the old-fashioned folly of naming
sickness. Except in a few cases of acute diseases no diagnosis can be made and no
diagnosis need be made, except that the patient is sick. The more one thinks of the name
of a disease so-called, the more one is beclouded in the search for a remedy..."
[Kent, 1900, p.23]

To homeopaths, the illness is the whole
person in his/her psychophysical totality. It is not confined to one area of the body such
as a headache or skin rash, and has no conventional barriers e.g. mind or body, one organ,
etc. The illness and the diagnosis thus overlap greatly in homeopathic medicine, and in
fact blend into one another, compared with allopathy.

"...disease is not...an entity, however subtle, hidden in the
interior of the organism separate from its living totality... Such a phantom can be
conceived only by materialistic minds." [The Organon, v.13]

It is perhaps best seen as a defect in the
vital force, a defect in the living totality.

"Ultimately all disease symptoms [mental and physical] arise from an
invisible source within the organism. External environmental factors, including bacteria and
viruses, merely excite into activity disease processes already present, they are not the
ultimate causes of symptoms." [Morrell, 1982, p.136]

The illness is purely and simply the
totality of the symptoms of the patient: nothing more and nothing less. The disease is thus
a rather abstract notion in homeopathy, an invisible cause [or miasm, according to
Hahnemann], that underlies all the visible symptoms. As in Plato and Plotinus [see
Evans-Wentz, 1958, p.85 and pp.163-4; also Russell, 1946, p.685], the disease is the
"noumenon" [invisible] or hidden cause of the "phenomenon" or outer,
visible effects [the illness symptoms].

"...diseases obviously are not and cannot be mechanical or chemical
changes in the material substance of the body...but are an exclusively dynamic, spirit-like
untunement of life." [The Organon, v.31]

And it is this innate and invisible
disorder that homeopaths claim is removed through the use of potentised remedies. The
homeopathic view of materialist, allopathic methods as barbarism and wrong [against natural
law] would seem to flow naturally from such a view described. As the cause of disease is
immaterial or subtle, so also must be its cure. When the subtle cause is removed then the
gross and visible effects also cease. Kent viewed this as a justification for the need to
potentise drugs, a matching of the subtle of the remedy with the subtle of the invisible
disease cause.

"It is not from external things that man becomes sick, not from
bacteria nor environment, but from causes in himself. If the homeopath does not see this, he
cannot have a true perception of disease. Disorder in the vital economy is the primary state
of affairs, and this disorder manifests itself by signs and symptoms." [Kent, 1900,
p.34]

The contemporary, allopathic view of
disease cause revolves around three concepts we are all familiar with: imperfect
physiological pathways, genetic defects and infective agents like bacteria and viruses.
These are all physical and sense-data causes, as one would expect from natural science.
Homeopaths, along with other natural therapists reject these concepts as the sole causes of
disease, not out of hand, but because they do not appear to explain all aspects of disease
in the way that allopaths believe. They adopt an essentially more vitalistic view of the
organism.